For fending off Alzheimer's and cognitive decline, ditch the supplements and pick up a puzzle: Toronto study

For fending off Alzheimer's, ditch supplements and try a puzzle: study

Keeping the brain healthy while one ages is a great challenge as medical science has extended lifespans and learned to manage chronic illnesses in the Western world. Some say exercise is best, others vouch for supplements. But it turns out that mental acuity might be best maintained by sharpening a pencil — and your problem-solving skills.

Many Canadians purchase supplements infused with omega-3 fatty acids and B-vitamins for their purported ability to fight free radicals, improve cranial cell structure and increase concentration, memory and awareness. But researchers at the University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto have found evidence proving otherwise.

It may be possible to reverse memory loss and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, a new U.S. study claims. In another recent study, researchers in Quebec say they are two years away from clinical trials on a vaccine against the illness, which would work by fending off the plaques of amyloid beta thought to cause the disease.

A compound called TFP5 has been shown to undo plaques and tangles in the brains of mice suffering with what researchers say is the mice equivalent of Alzheimer’s disease. After injecting mice with the molecule, symptoms are reversed and memory is restored— without obvious toxic side effects. Researchers at the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders in Bethesda, Md., caution that clinical trials on humans still need to be conducted to determine whether TFP5 would have similar effects on people suffering with Alzheimer’s, but they say the early results are promising.

“We didn’t specifically go in trying to refute or promote any specific activities,” said the review’s lead author, Raza Naqvi, a medical resident from the University of Toronto. “What we did find was that there were several herbal products that have been studied formally, [and they] did not show any benefit in preventing cognitive decline in the healthier older adult population.”

They also found no strong evidence to suggest pharmaceutical inhibitors such as Cholinesteras (a family of enzymes) improves memory, thought, judgment, or aids in the communication of neurotransmitters in the brain. Their analysis also found no strong proof that taking oral supplements such as ginkgo, vitamins B6 and omega-3 fatty acids delays cognitive degeneration or boosts brain activity.

“In the U.S., a women’s health initiative in memory study looked at over 10,000 women and said, ‘Well, if we give you estrogen just for the purpose of trying to preserve your memory, what will the effect be?’ ” he said. “What they actually found over the course of four to five years was that there were more women developing dementia or having decreased memory scores when they were using the estrogen or related medicines solely for the purpose of preserving their memory.”

Last month, a study from the Ontario Brain Institute suggested that nearly one in seven Canadians could prevent Alzheimer’s disease and early-onset dementia through regular physical activity. Naqvi says that although they found some studies that affirmed these findings, particularly in the case of resistance training, the overall evidence supporting these analyses was too unclear to deduce such a strong conclusion.

Currently, the annual rate of decline into dementia and Alzheimer’s disease is 10% of the population, but scientists forecast that as more Canadians reach retirement age, this number will double within the next 25 years, with the total number of people in the country suffering with these ailments reaching one million in that time.

According to the study, between 10% and 25% of Canadians over the age of 70 will experience symptoms of mild cognitive impairment, characterized as “reduced memory, judgment, and decision-making skills,” compared to their peers of a similar cohort. Although these symptoms may be life-altering, scientists say they do not interfere with one’s daily activities.

‘We encourage researchers to consider easily accessible tools such as crossword puzzles and Sudoku that have not been rigorously studied’

With so many studies now debunked, Naqvi said it may be hard to decipher exactly what activities can strengthen cognitive health. However, the researchers did find that mental exercises such as “computerized memory training programs, or one-on-one sessions with somebody who would give strategies to these healthy older adults on how to improve their memory or thinking,” created a slight increase in brain cognition. But Naqvi said more research is needed in order to make this a universal recommendation.

“We encourage researchers to consider easily accessible tools such as crossword puzzles and Sudoku that have not been rigorously studied,” he said. “The studies in this review that assessed cognitive exercises used exercises that were both labour- and resource-intensive, and thus may not be applicable to most of our patients.”

Although physical activity was not linked to improved memory, Naqvi also says that anyone with health concerns should still practise regular exercise because “there are so many other benefits to being physically active that we’d suggest it anyway.”

“The key messages from this study is that keeping your brain active through these formal programs [works], and we’d like to hope that any sort of activity [like this] is helpful,” he said.

“The fact that mental exercise consistently showed benefits is encouraging. So hopefully this will give researchers and others with an interest an opportunity to pursue it further and then maybe in a few years from now, we will have even more evidence for its benefits.”